Food Porn

Garden Three-Bean Salad with fresh French Dressing.

We got this recipe out of the June issue of Better Homes and Garden. It's been floating around for a while. We were out in the garden today and I pointed out the nice crop of green beans that were ready. When we came back in, Nick pulled out the page from it's current pile and said let's make this salad.

Over all, it was a tasty salad. The only ingredient that we could pull from the garden was the green beans. The chickens destroyed our lettuce crop, which sucks because we had the prettiest heads of butter crunch lettuce that would of been picture perfect. I would like to point out too, that I think that our chickens have discerning taste or just really good timing. Because until just a week ago, the lettuce remained unmolested. From starts the chickens picked and scratched around the plants leaving them alone. But once the lettuce started to get to that perfect stage, boom! Carnage. They are now banned.

Well, a quick run to the store didn't turn up any butter crunch so red and green leaf had to fill in. However, I almost went for an iceberg head, thinking the cold crispness would pair nicely. I'm almost wishing I had gone with that. The leaf lettuce just didn't have that crisp crunch I wanted.

The best part of the salad was the combination of beans. We love edamame and cannellini beans and I would not of thought to use them together, but the pairings with the fresh dressing and the fresh green beans was perfect. It made for a nice dinner on a summery day, not to mention the slight hangover we have from our overnight wedding reception. With our salad we had a nice, young bottle of Smart Water.

Here's the recipe (as seen in BHG magazine):
2 cups fresh green beans (trimmed)
8 cups mixed greens
2 cups frozen edamame (thawed)
1 cup canned white beans (cannellini: drained and rinsed)
1 cup radishes sliced
1 recipe Fresh French Dressing (follows)

Dressing:
in blender combine 2 medium tomatoes that have been seeded and quarterd; 1/4 cup olive oil; 2-3 Tbsp red wine vinegar; 2 Tbsp tomato paste; 1 Tbsp snipped tarragon; and 2 tsp dijon mustard. Cover and process until thoroughly blended. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If it's too runny, add more paste and process further. Refrigerate.

Microwave the green beans in a microwave safe bowl with 1/4 cup water and 1 tsp salt uncovered for about 3.5 - 5 mins on high. Set aside and allow to cool. (I took them out at 3.5 minutes, and then rinsed them with cold water to stop the cooking. I like my beans tender crisp. Nick ate them like french fries!)

The recipe says to toss everything together and dress lightly with the dressing. I like assembling a bowl by layers and then applying the dressing. It was appetizing, it spared the ingredients that were leftover from being soggy and unappealing. I now have left over ingredients to make a bowl for lunch tomorrow.

If you try the dressing recipe, let me know. I'm curious to hear your thoughts and want to tweak it. It was okay, good even, but something was lacking.